baleen

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: ba=leen

CIDE DICTIONARY

baleen, n. [F. baleine whale and whalebone, L. balaena a whale; cf. Gr. fa`laina. ].

 Plates or blades of “whalebone,” from two to twelve feet long, and sometimes a foot wide, which in certain whales (Balænoidea) are attached side by side along the upper jaw, and form a fringelike sieve by which the food is retained in the mouth.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

baleen, n. whalebone.

Idiom

baleen whale any of various whales of the suborder Mysticeti, having plates of baleen fringed with bristles for straining plankton from the water.

Etymology

ME f. OF baleine f. L balaena whale

ROGET THESAURUS

baleen

Elasticity

N elasticity, springiness, spring, resilience, renitency, buoyancy, rubber, India rubber, Indian rubber, latex, caoutchouc, whalebone, gum elastic, baleen, natural rubber, neoprene, synthetic rubber, Buna- S, plastic, flexibility, Young's modulus, elastic, flexible, tensile, spring, resilient, renitent, buoyant, ductile, stretchable, extendable, the stress is proportional to the strain.